Progress Hybrid Vent Question

[fire_man]

Yea I know - and that was only what I got after my mid year cleaning. I'm hoping by adding a couple more feet to the liner, there will be better draft so the cat will light of better and not stall as often. Then Mr. sooteater can take a break.

My creosote does not have any flaky stuff in it, just really powdery and very dark which is indicative of burning too low. Wish I had as little creosote as Toddnic's photo showed

 

[BKVP]

How can such a clean burning stove be putting so much crud up the chimney? Cold flues?

Begreen,

I suspect the stove is being not just run on low continually but also upon reloading. The OP should run the stove hot for the first hour or two to better deal with the moisture in the load.

 

[fire_man]

I think BKVP is right. My stove runs on low continuously - and I only spend 15 minutes or so after each reload before cranking it down to a low burn (I'm up at 4am and out the door fast!). The wood is seasoned/covered 3+ years, but I guess still has moisture. One issue with this stove is if you fire it up for too long after reloading, the secondaries kick in and it throws more heat than you might need, even with the draft on lowest setting. The only way to get around this is to close it down sooner or burn smaller loads - the latter hurts burn time.

BTW, I drool over that car in Chris's Avatar every time I see it.

632 cu inch Merlin Engine rated at 911 HP

 

[BKVP]

I think BKVP is right. My stove runs on low continuously - and I only spend 15 minutes or so after each reload before cranking it down to a low burn (I'm up at 4am and out the door fast!). The wood is seasoned/covered 3+ years, but I guess still has moisture. One issue with this stove is if you fire it up for too long after reloading, the secondaries kick in and it throws more heat than you might need, even with the draft on lowest setting. The only way to get around this is to close it down sooner or burn smaller loads - the latter hurts burn time.

BTW, I drool over that car in Chris's Avatar every time I see it.

632 cu inch Merlin Engine rated at 911 HP

It's for sale! (But we down graded to a 542 cu Merlin, AFR heads and now only 788 HP...but the meats stick to the asphalt!

As for the issue with combustion moisture, yes even very dry wood has moisture. When the fire boils that water it creates steam which cools the cat or in secondary combustion stoves (non cat) refractory materials. You may consider just getting up a little earlier to give the stove time to light off or purchase some manufactured logs, such as NIELS. With only 7% moisture content, they are almost too dry but mixed with cord wood they work superbly.

 

[Berner]

I think BKVP is right. My stove runs on low continuously - and I only spend 15 minutes or so after each reload before cranking it down to a low burn (I'm up at 4am and out the door fast!). The wood is seasoned/covered 3+ years, but I guess still has moisture. One issue with this stove is if you fire it up for too long after reloading, the secondaries kick in and it throws more heat than you might need, even with the draft on lowest setting. The only way to get around this is to close it down sooner or burn smaller loads - the latter hurts burn time.

BTW, I drool over that car in Chris's Avatar every time I see it.

632 cu inch Merlin Engine rated at 911 HP

What kind of burn times are you getting? When I open it up my burn time gets cut way down. I definitely need to run my hotter but it kills me to be reloading that sucker every 5-6 hrs.

 

[fire_man]

My burn times on Low setting are pretty close to 10-12 hours. I'm not sure what would happen if I opened it up - I could not deal with 6 hour burn times, that's why I replaced the Fireview with the Progress.

I added a second stove so The Progress will have an easier time heating during the coldest months, so now I have even less of a reason to open up the draft.

I'm thinking about just buying a much better brush/rod system made by Vicor so that at least the frequent cleanings are less of a hassle than using that darn sooteater. I like that thing less and less every time I use it and now I have 2 flues to clean, one is 24 feet tall.